For this leg of the tour I decided to mix things up a little and throw in some "all-mountain" type of riding. The destination: Golden Ears Park in Maple Ridge. The riders: myself, Jordan K, Cory S, and Derek H.
We met at the big ol' goat sign then at the entrance to the provincial park then headed to Mike Lake where we dropped off all our gear and one vehicle, then Derek and I drove our vehicles down to Gold Creek to drop off his Ford Ranger as the recovery vehicle. After making the trip back to Mike Lake from Gold creek, we were ready to start the adventure. Cory and Jordan heard from a couple other riders that the forest access road was closed due to some construction which meant we had to make our way up the dreaded Incline trail. The Incline trail, as opposed to the gradual sloped meandering forest access road, is a steep straight line trail right up the side of the mountain. Although the trail is much shorter than the road it requires a lot more exertion and often times isnt any faster because you have to take more breaks. Somehow we perservered and powered our way up the trail in one of the fastest times I can remember ever climbing the Incline.
After a short pow-wow at the top of the Incline we checked our gearing and brakes and dropped into the Eric Dunning trail. Derek's pristine Devinci Magma had only seen a few rides and the brake rotors looked untouched, that will soon change. The four of us booted down the through the switch-backs and jumped any root or rock we came across. As I came to the end of the trail I jumped the log drop at the end and waited at the roadside for the others. Cory wasn't far behind me and he too jumped the log drop. Cory had been on my tail the whole way down Eric Dunning. Not far behind Cory was Derek whose brakes were squealing away as they were breaking-in. We waited a few minutes before Jordan came down the trail walking his bike with a flat rear tire. Time for a trailside lesson in bike repair.
After using up an entire patch kit on both my spare tube, which had hole in it, and Jordan's tube, which had a double snakebite, we were back on our way again. Now we were coasting down a short stretch of the Mike Lake road towards Menzie's trail. The seat posts were raised and the gears were dropped and Derek led the charge up the trail towards the waterfall. I soon ran out of gas after the first steep section and was overtaken by Cory and eventually by Jordan and was left grinding away to keep up with them. The four of us reconvened at the falls to catch our breaths and check out some ancient wooden pipes from back in the logging days. Derek then started off pedaling through the creek and I followed but ended aiming straight for the deeper section and completely soaked my feet. Very cold. A few minutes later we were at the peak of the trail overlooking Alouette Lake and the clouded-shrouded Blue Mountain across the way.
After some food, it was time at for the 7km of gradual downhill towards Gold creek. We steamed ahead, jumping roots, and pedaling through the countless puddles along the way. This section of Menzies is a long green corridor running throught the forest parallel to the main road throught the park, with the odd abrupt creek crossing and rooty section to keep things interesting. After crossing the road and back again, the trail made a short climb up to a branch of Gold creek where, oddly enough, the were three guys with their dog just standing around drinking beer. They quoted "drinking in the forest beats drinking in the city". I suppose. Anyways, we ended up ripping up the last part of the ride which was fast and flowy and ended with a sandy swithback on to the park road right beside Derek's truck. Derek then suprised us with a cold post ride beer each. Wouldnt you know it, those three guys and their dog were right, it was way better out in the forest.
Completely soaked and entirely muddy we loaded up the Ranger and headed back to Mike Lake and our waiting vehicles and so ends another epic instalment of the Tour.
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